Grocery Store Shenanigans
by je ne suis aucun ange
Summary: Chuck meets an interesting man at the grocery store with sunglasses and a very interesting secret life. Chuck Bartowski / Michael Westen.


Summary: Chuck meets an interesting man at the grocery store with sunglasses and a very interesting secret life. Chuck Bartowski / Michael Westen.

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters.

I just made up the name in the story so don't worry, no spoilers.

Grocery Store Shenanigans

Chuck learned to love the mundane things in life. Bringing the Nerd Herd buggy in for an oil change, cleaning out his closet, and grocery shopping. He knew Casey or Sarah were listening in or watching the whole time anyway, but they'd been nice enough to give him some space at least for the more boring things. He remembered the last time he'd gone sock shopping and spent a half hour picking out the perfect ones. The next day at work he'd gotten grabbed aside by Casey and growled that if he ever made him sit sweating in a van for almost an hour bored out of his mind again,... just remembering Casey's very graphic and very creepy threat made Chuck shiver and look over his shoulder for the scary NSA agent.

He loved going grocery shopping especially. He'd gotten a pretty short list from Ellie, but he usually liked to take his time anyway. The best was when the stores were mostly empty. He knew he'd probably never see a CIA tail or any other government shadow, but he knows at least it'd be kind of harder with no one else to hide behind. He giggled a bit at imagining Casey hiding behind a barrel of bananas.

He was picking through the honeydew melons when he saw a dark suit out of the corner of his eye. He caught a quick glance at his cool shades and he started getting that feeling. He flashed before he could take another breath. Covert ops, machine guns, silencers, Afghanistan, all flashed through his mind making him reel. When he finally came to he somehow had turned to completely face the man and was openly staring… and the sunshades guy was staring right back. The guy thinned his lips and looked more than a bit suspicious, turning to face Chuck. Chuck felt his hackles raise and tried to slow down his racing heart. "Try to act cool, act cool," his thought to himself. Sunglasses smiles thinly, obviously fake, towards Chuck, maybe to calm him down a bit… It wasn't working. Chuck returned a shaky smile and he turned around and sped around the corner to go down the next aisle. Stay calm, don't panic, don't freak out. He heard steps behind him. "DON'T FREAK OUT!," his mind screamed.

He had run into the snack aisle and, luckily, a woman and her crying kid were there too fighting over whether they were gonna buy that candy. Chuck gave a little sigh of relief, but still moved more towards the people just in case. He pretended to look at some gushers and listened for more steps, but didn't hear anything over the whining. "Maybe I was wrong," Chuck thought. He wondered if he should have Casey check with the Intersect's information when he noticed the woman and child suddenly leaving the aisle, the woman dragging the kid away. He gulped. He'd been left alone… after staring at some ex-military kind of guy… Chuck started speed walking to the end of the aisle, just giving up on shopping, when Sunglasses showed up at the end blocking the way.

"EEP!" Chuck grabbed his chest instinctively. Sunglasses was as quiet as Casey was sometimes, and looked like he'd taken down people much more dangerous than Chuck. With the aisle blocked and no one to save him, Chuck tried to talk his way out. "Hey! How about those Dodgers, huh?," he nervously laughed. The guy was just standing there again, watching. "Yeah, that game was great, with the passes and goals!," he scrambled. He had never hoped so much that his awkwardness would work in his favor.

The guy seemed to genuinely laugh at that for a second, letting the creepy stare drop. Goosebumps spread along Chuck's arms, making him rub his arms and take a step backwards. "Yeah, but I never knew that baseball players were so good at passing and making goals."

Chuck thought, "Crap, I knew I shouldn't try with the sports, but at least he's smiling. Maybe he'll let me leave," he hoped. Chuck kept taking a few steps back, but the guy just kept following.

"You know, they're having a great sale on ice pops two aisles over. You should check it out…," Chuck suggested shakily. His back accidently hit the edge of the shelf and he jumped. Than man just kept advancing, looking too calm and too observant. Chuck felt more like a mouse trying to escape the cat than a person at this point. Chuck decided it was now or never and bolted. His legs ran down to the end of the aisle and tried to double around the get out of there as quick as he could. He had almost gotten to the last aisle when the man tackled him through the employees only door leading to the storage.

It felt so cold and no one seemed to be in sight. "Where the hell are the employees?!" Chuck squeaked to himself. He was still trying to get back on his feet when he saw the guy standing over him, gun pointed at his face. "Whoa, guy, maybe you want to take a second to… uh,,, to think about this," Chuck stuttered. "Now would be a great time for Casey or Sarah to check in on me," Chuck wondered.

"Who are you and what do you want?," the guy questioned holding the gun steady.

"What I want?!," Chuck shrilled, "I just want to go home!" He shifted his eyes around hoping more than anything a magic escape door would pop up.

The guy's gun still stayed level, the barrel facing Chuck's widened eyes. If the guy wasn't cornering him with a gun in his favorite grocery store, Chuck might have made a joke about him and a pin-up calendar.

All of a sudden someone was walking through the door, Sunglasses quickly grabbed Chuck and swung his arm around his shoulder and jammed the gun in his side, stretching his lips up again in a look that was a bit too forceful. Chuck gasped and stilled, remembering he never even got to open his latest game at home, the disk just sitting still plastic wrapped on his sheets.

The guy looked like a zombie, taking a full minute to realize someone else was in the storage area. He gave a confused "Huh?"

Sunglasses gave Chuck a pseudo-friendly shoulder shake, laughing loud, "You crazy bugger, you! I'm so sorry for him, he wanders into other places without thinking sometimes." Giving the guy a stage whisper, he pointedly said, "He's not all there."

The confused worker just gave a grunt and waved them out. Chuck whined low hoping the guy would catch a look at the gun, but the overworked employee just kept on moving. Sunglasses moved them into the main part of the store, passing the restocker and the lone cashier checking her phone without any incident.

As he was forced into the parking lot, Chuck pleaded, "P-please, just let me go and I-I-I swear I won't say anything." He tried dragging his feet a little, but Sunglasses just kept pulling him along. He wiggled as they got closer to the end of the parking lot, making a last attempt at wretching himself from the grasp, but Sunglasses got fed up, throwing him into a SUV and trapping him with his hands on either side of his face.

"Look,..." Sunglasses paused.

"Chuck," he supplied.

"Chuck," Sunglasses resumed, "you are going to come calmly and quietly with me, okay? You aren't going to cause a scene and you aren't going to fight me."

Chuck's head was spinning. He desperately tried to see any way of escaping, but only saw the sunglasses staring right at him inches away. Chuck's breathing became heavy, slightly fogging up the sunglass' rim as he swayed slightly cursing Sarah and Casey's lack of superhero showing up timing.

Chuck lunged forward crashing his lips clumsily against the towering man's, pleading for enough of a distraction to get away or stall. He felt Sunglasses freeze and gape at him with eyes nearly popping out. Chuck screwed his eyes shut and stayed absolutely still. Finally, what felt like forever, Sunglasses slowly pulled away wrapping his hands around Chuck's arms to keep him still, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. Chuck licked his lips and tasted mint and yogurt, wondering how kissing this man was better than anything with Jill.

They had a long look at each other as the silence between them stretched for seconds too long. With a sigh, Sunglasses tightened his grip on Chuck's arms and whispered, "Look, Chuck, all you need to do to get out of this is to give me my file and I'll be on my way," at the sight of Chuck opening his mouth to protest, he adds, "And don't pretend to not know who I am. I know you recognized me in the store and all you need is to give me a name from my file. Can you do that, Chuck?"

Chuck stood flustered, not sure how to explain how he knew what he knew, but he needed to think of something. The ex-spy stared him down, whispering, "Michael Westen's file. M-I-C-..." Chuck nodded quickly, looking more like a nervous puppy than the soldier he's mistaken for. "I only have one name that isn't blacked out," Chuck murmured, his cheeks still a little flushed. Sungla-Michael inched in closer, his eyes giving away his joy.

"What. Is. The. Name?" he emphasized with his hands bringing Chuck even closer, their breaths mingling. Chuck shuddered as his skin crawled with goosebumps. "Nicholas Ivanovich."

"Thanks, Chuck, you've been a great help." He glances down at Chuck's parted lips, subconsciously licking his own. With that, Michael released his grip on Chuck's arms and casually walked to an old Dodge Charger, getting in as if the whole ordeal was Chuck's imagination.

Off in the distance he vaguely noticed stomping footsteps coming closer. Chuck looked off to the rushed steps and couldn't stop the huge sigh of relief seeing his government entourage there to save the day. A little late, but it worked out at least. Sarah ran up to him, stopping short a few feet as she whirled around looking for any threats. "Are you alright, Chuck?" She and Casey were looking like they were chasing the boogeyman, holding their guns at their hips, ready to fire at the slightest provocation.

"I'm fine, guys," he reassured with a nervous chuckle. Remembering Michael's hands on his arms, he rubbed them self-consciously, and waited for the pair to calm down enough to holster their guns.

They finally gave up their search and shoved him in the car pushing him for a report and what happened and why didn't he call, they need to protect the Intersect's information. When they got back to Casey's, Chuck did tell them most of what happened, leaving out some of the more embarrassing details. As they listened, they already started calling the General and started updating her once he finished.

By the time they let Chuck go home to sleep he was wide awake. He started up his playstation, getting Call of Duty ready and waiting for the loading bar the finish. As he waited, he felt a tingling in his lips, reaching up to touch them softly, remembering how soft Michael's lips were. He couldn't help imagining how else Michael could have interrogated him, using his muscled arms to hold him down, his warm breath washing over his shivering neck. The game's soundtrack brought Chuck back to reality and with a shake of his head and the game's earpiece on he went on with his night.


End file.
